On Reproductive Issues

“Techniques of fertilization in vitro can open the way to other forms of biological and genetic manipulation of human embryos, such as attempts or plans for fertilization between human and animal gametes and the gestation of human embryos in the uterus of animals, or the hypothesis or project of constructing artificial uteruses for the human embryo. These procedures are contrary to the human dignity proper to the embryo, and at the same time they are contrary to the right of every person to be conceived and to be born within marriage and from marriage.” –Donum Vitae, I.6

"Implantation of an embryo in a uterus does not cause a "ball of cells" to become a human being. Rather, the embryo already was a human being."-- Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University

"There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of a higher order than the right to life. That was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore out of your right to be concerned.... Don't let the pro-choicers convince you that a fetus isn't a human being. That's how the whites dehumanized us... The first step was to distort the image of us as human beings in order to justify what they wanted to do and not even feel they'd done anything wrong." --Rev. Jesse Jackson

"The notion that it is OK for a single woman to impregnate herself with a stranger's sperm is like trying to play a game of chess with oneself: it may look like you win every time you play, but you really lose every time as well. A truly good chess game requires two participants fully committed to the endeavor, and the same is true for human procreation. --Father Tad Pacholczyk, Ph.D., Director of Education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center

"Let's be honest. We got over the idea of in vitro fertilization soon enough. And IVF has the same feature of prospective parents choosing to have offspring with their own genes instead of adopting the potentially defective ones of others. So, although reproductive cloning might be the extreme of conceit and selfishness, IVF is certainly part of the same spectrum." --James Sherley, Ph.D. professor of Biological Engineering, MIT

"A baby girl is born with about half a million eggs already formed in her ovaries. Her body will never make more, only mature them. That's a lot of eggs. Consider that only about 10 eggs are retrieved at a time from an adult female donor after a long, painful, hormonal injection process. So for several years already, the abortion and feminist industries have been cashing in on the eggs of aborted girls, and because of the burgeoning cloning and embryonic stem-cell industries, the value of those eggs will only grow more golden."-- Jill Stanek, nurse and pro-life activist

"I had helped make reproductive technologies invincible, and facing human cloning was like greeting Frankenstein's monster for the first time. The creation had gone amok." --Lori B. Andrews, reproductive rights lawyer

"A woman gets more regulatory oversight when she gets a tattoo than when she gets IVF." --Brooks Keel, M.D., University of Kansas School of Medicine

"Where have we come to look upon 'spare' IVF embryos as mere bundles of cells rather than as potential people?" --Wesley J. Smith, lawyer and author of Consumer's Guide to the Brave New World

"In 1993, doctors began offering ICSI, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, to couples who had a low sperm count.... For the doctors in the lab, the procedure itself was thrilling. They took a thin needle and shot the sperm into the egg. It was like sex under the microscope." -- Lori B. Andrews, reproductive rights lawyer

"It is by bringing the embryo out of the womb and into the light of day that IVF (in vitro fertilization) provides access to the genetic material within. In a very literal sense, IVF allows us to have the future of our species in our own hands." --Lee M. Silver, Ph.D., professor of Molecular Biology, Princeton University

"Many couples today are no longer troubled or beset by the moral dilemmas inherent in the technique [IVF]. They generally fail to see how they are acting against the meaning and order of their own marraige by allowing a third party, the laboratory technician, to impreganate the wife, albeit artificially, in the place of her husband.... These same couples may also not see the profound unacceptability of producing numerous extra embryos which are routinely consigned to a fate of suspended animation in the deep freeze, not to mention the worse fate which may await them at the hands of eager embryonic stem cell researchers." --Fr. Tad Pacholczyk, Ph.D., Director of Education, National Catholic Bioethics Center

"In IVF clinics across the country, there are stock piles of abandoned embryos. How can couples 'forget' they have frozen embryos? Isn't that like a man conviently forgetting he has a wife?" --Lori B. Andrews, reproductive rights lawyer